How to start using your intuition in your art

“A good artist lets his intuition lead him wherever it wants.”

Lao Tzu

Written by: Angie Noll

Many artists use their intuition to help them create. Picasso himself said about intuition that it’s like having a carrier pigeon with a message land on your balcony. All you have to do is pay attention and know that the message has arrived.

My intuition is an integral part of everything that I do – including my art. Archangel Gabriel, for instance, is a constant writing companion, and various other spiritual assistants come and go depending on what I need. When I’m stuck or I don’t understand something, I ask for guidance and wisdom so that I may know how to proceed. When I’m out of inspiration, I call on the spiritual realm, and when I don’t know how to express in words what’s brewing inside of me, the Angels are there to help out.

Sometimes, I’m given specific words. At other times, it’s visual images for me to work with. There are times when my voice doesn’t sound like me, and I’m aware that my writing is influenced by a force that is bigger than me. A force that my Soul recognises, even if my ego personality doesn’t.

“There are always intentional forms, words and symbols which work themselves into a painting, but it is through an intuitive gut-felt impulse to paint out, scrape, and revise that the painting tells me what IT wants, rather than what I want it to be.”

Raegan Russell, Painter

Intuition is for everyone

I work from the basic premise that every artist has an innate intuitive ability. It’s just more developed in some than in others. Therefore, it stands to reason that you, too, must be able to start using it in your creative pursuits right now – even if it’s just in a small way.

Here are a few things that make it easier for me to allow my intuition to guide my creativity.

I believe I already know what I need to know. When I sit down to write or to teach a yoga class I start with the assumption that I already have all the answers inside of me that I need right now and that my intuition will guide me along the way. This knowing opens up the communication channels and ensures that I know when the carrier pigeon has landed on my balcony.

I manage creative anxiety. I don’t stress about how to write something, or about feeling a lack of inspiration. Similarly, I don’t believe in writer’s block because I know that when something needs me to write it, it will come. And there is always something to write. When I feel an intuitive nudge from the divine as inspiration to create something I follow that inspiration without querying all the details. I simply trust that my intuition will guide me.

I ask for guidance for the next step. When I do feel stuck, or lost for the right words, I just ask my Higher Self what the next step is. It’s important to ask and not just sit back and wait for the Muses of creativity to deliver all to you. Ask, straight up, when you need help.

I pay attention to life around me. This not only serves to fuel my creativity, but I can also sense whens something feels right and when it doesn’t. And ordinary moment might suddenly seem like the perfect blog idea, or the exact example I need for the chapter of the book I’m writing. If I wasn’t paying attention to ordinary life, I would miss out on many creative cues that come from spirit. As Chris Messner, a photographer says,

“True inspiration unfolds itself, not by force or it becomes fake. True intuition is also the ability to be observant.”

I prevent over-stimulation. No one can create when their nervous system is frazzled from being over stimulated, much less hear their Muses whispering inspiration in their ears. I steer clear of malls and other busy places unless I know they’re going to feed my creative spirit. I enjoy quiet time whenever possible, being in nature and generally making space in my day and in my mind for Spirit to communicate.

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